In Texas, a Surge of Migrants Also Means a Surge of Dead Bodies

It had become a routine call. On June 21, Brooks County Deputy Elias Pompa was called to the Wagenschein Ranch in southern Texas. A U.S. Border Patrol supervisor escorted Pompa and a justice of the peace onto the property. The three walked a fifth of a mile and arrived at GPS coordinates N.27.05702-W.98.14811. There, the remains of a migrant lay on the dry, grassy ground. “The skeletal remains appeared to be from a small frame female. She was wearing a black shirt, blue bra, black pants and some black Puma shoes with some pink and purple lines on the side. There was no ID found on the remains or in the surrounding area,” read the Sheriff’s Department report. The remains, the report continued, were picked up by a south Texas mortuary and would be translated to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office, in Laredo. And the journey has grown deadlier. In 2012, the National Foundation for American Policy reported that migrants were eight times more likely to die in an attempt to cross the border illegally than a decade before. Medical Examiner Corinne Stern, a petite 48-year-old woman with a take-charge demeanor, remembers the case of the Wagenschein Ranch well. A Guatemalan man living in Boston had called her office shortly before those skeletal remains arrived, saying his sister was missing. He described what she had been wearing when she left home en route to the U.S., and it was a close match. He said she had light brown hair, green eyes, no tattoos or scars. First, Stern pulled out the missing person’s file, looking for potential matches. Then, she tagged the body and X-rayed it to look for screws or surgical plates. Stern photographed the remains, documented the clothing—its size, brand and color—and performed a complete autopsy. Sometimes, says Stern, migrants hide phone numbers in the stitching behind belts and under the soles of their shoes. Stern’s staff will also look for SIM cards on the migrants and then insert them into their own cell phones. “We have a lot of chargers here,” says Stern. If no IDs are found on a deceased migrant, recent calls can provide the first clue to their home country: The most frequent country codes found on the call log nowadays are 502 for Guatemala, 503 for El Salvador and 504 for Honduras. Sometimes, investigators come to the conclusion that the most recent number belongs to a “coyote,” or human smuggler, because when they’re called they slam the phone down almost immediately...more